Medical drapes are widely used during the performance of surgical and other medical procedures. The drapes are used to cover a patient as a patient protective measure. The drapes may be sterilized and are intended to prevent the possibility of patient infection. The drapes provide protection to the patient by creating a sterile environment surrounding the surgical site and maintaining an effective barrier that minimizes the passage of microorganisms between non-sterile and sterile areas. Drapes have generally been made of a material that is resistant to blood, plasma, serums, and/or other bodily fluids to prohibit such fluids from contaminating the sterile field.
Drapes are generally configured to specifically accommodate the particular surgical procedure to be performed, resulting in a need for surgical facilities to stock multiple drapes of different sizes and shapes. Some drapes have a common over all shape but have specific surgical portions designed for the particular surgery. Accordingly, surgical facilities must maintain inventories of multiple drapes that are the same size and shape but having specific surgical portions. Because the drapes may be very large, each drape uses considerable space during storage and increases the complexity of inventory management.
The drape must be large enough to sufficiently cover the patient in accordance with the surgical procedure. Many drapes are large enough to cover the entire patient and may cover other equipment adjacent to the patient. The drape's overall size may be large while the actual portion where a procedure is performed is small, or at least small relative to the overall drape size because the drape must be large enough to protect against infection. As a result, much of the drape may not become soiled during the surgical procedure or as it is removed from the procedure area.
In many instances, once the procedure is complete, the entire drape must be deposited in a bio-hazard disposal container in accordance with biological hazardous waste guidelines even though only a small portion of the drape is sufficiently soiled to require bio-hazard disposal. Consequently, large amounts of unsoiled non-hazardous material are disposed of in a hazardous waste process. Bio-hazardous waste is more costly and difficult to handle because of increased risk of infection and biological hazardous waste guidelines. Surgical facilities incur the cost of disposing of large amounts of material in accordance with biological hazardous waste guidelines even though the material is unsoiled and non-hazardous.
Moreover, even when a drape is not sufficiently soiled to require hazardous disposal, existing drapes are currently made of non-biodegradable material. As a result, the entire drape becomes waste that must be disposed of in a non evironmentally friendly manner.
Thus, it would be desirable to have a medical drape that is environmentally friendly, reduces waste and improves inventory management.
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments are shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described in detail herein. It should be understood, however, that the invention is not intended to be limited to the particular forms disclosed. Rather, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention.